


The Friendship Gate

by ShopboughtCoke (HomemadeLemonade)



Category: Homeland
Genre: F/M, Hope for S6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 04:47:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8519056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomemadeLemonade/pseuds/ShopboughtCoke
Summary: A short tale of the determined, the resolute and the plain fucking stubborn.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For Laure, Frangi and Zeffy♥

He'd pushed her away, told her he didn't need anyone, that she didn't need him. Determined. Resolute. Plain fucking stubborn. 

She couldn't complain though. She was just as bad. She'd followed him here after all. Because she did need him. And he needed her. 

It was winter, snow couldn't be far away. She'd taken her daughter out of school - "Just a short holiday," she'd reassured the disapproving teacher as she accepted lesson plans - while she tried to figure it out. They'd rented a cabin near his. Not that his was much of a cabin. It was in such a state of disrepair it was barely a hut. The wind howled through the rotted timbers day and night. It had a wood stove he hardly ever lit, judging by the lack of smoke from the chimney. So not only was he cold, he was likely hungry too. 

Oh, he had food. She and her daughter drove into town every few days for supplies and she always bought extra. She'd drive down the track to his cabin, leave the engine running to keep her daughter warm, grab a bag filled with bread, milk and other basics - sometimes a few bars of chocolate, and tap quietly on his door. He'd only opened it once, filled with fury, ready to tell her to go to hell, but he'd spied her daughter watching from the back seat. It had taken all his control to simply close the door. After that she just propped the bag against it. Determined, resolute, plain fucking stubborn. 

Her daughter began to sneak through a hole in the ramshackle fence between the properties. She warned her not to do it, not because she thought he'd hurt her, she knew he never would, but because she wanted him to make the decision to let her in, to let them in. 

One morning she was clearing fallen branches in the yard when she noticed her daughter wasn't there. Not only had she crawled through the fence again, she'd made her way to his cabin and was knocking tentatively at the door. She sucked in her breath as he opened it. There was an exchange she couldn't hear. He looked past the child and met her hopeful eyes across the distance. Then he stood back, allowing the child to cross the threshold, still holding her gaze. The door closed. Soon after, she noticed smoke coming from the chimney. She smiled to herself and went inside to wait.

When her daughter returned she was curious. She suggested they sit down for lunch, but the child wasn't hungry. He'd made her hot chocolate and buttery toast, then walked her back to the fence and watched her crawl through. She smiled to herself once more.  

That afternoon, they heard sawing and hammering. She twitched the curtain aside and saw him patching the hole in the fence. Her face fell.

A few days later she was raking fallen leaves and noticed her daughter wasn't trying to jump into the pile. She glanced around and saw she'd discovered another hole in the fence. Determined, resolute, plain fucking stubborn.  

The cabin door opened and closed. Smoke billowed from the chimney. 

She didn't bother to look out the window later when the hammering began. 

Days passed. More holes. More hot chocolate. More hammering.

One night she climbed into bed with a rare second glass of wine and a tear in her eye. She slept a little later the next morning and didn't hear her daughter stirring, padding to look in on her, pulling on her coat. 

She awoke suddenly with a sense that something was wrong. She ran out into the yard and heard the frantic cries. She saw a flash of strawberry blonde as his hand released the hood of her daughter's coat from where it had snagged on the fence. She scrambled through the hole as he carefully scooped the sobbing child into his arms. She followed the two of them into his cabin. She cradled the child on her lap and watched from the corner of her eye as he slowly lit the stove and made them hot chocolate and toast.

She held her daughter's hand as they walked up the track away from his cabin and back home.

The hammering began later than usual and continued long after she'd climbed into bed, holding her daughter close.

The next morning she took the child outside to see the first flakes of snow. She scanned the fence for his latest repair. Her eyes filled with tears when she saw he'd built a gate there instead.


End file.
